


Independance Day

by SecretScribbles



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: All the actors have beautiful voices, Crack reading, Gen, I need to hear them sing someday, IN CHARACTER PLEASE, Need a laugh?, oooooh, wouldn't that be fun?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-11
Updated: 2017-02-11
Packaged: 2018-09-23 11:46:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,102
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9656171
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SecretScribbles/pseuds/SecretScribbles
Summary: Ever wonder what it would be like to celebrate a holiday in space?





	

**Author's Note:**

> O beautiful for spacious skies,  
> For amber waves of grain,  
> For purple mountain majesties  
> Above the fruited plain!  
> America! America! God shed His grace on thee,  
> And crown thy good with brotherhood  
> From sea to shining sea!
> 
>  
> 
> Let's have a bonding moment, shall we?

\---

 

 

“Guys,” Pidge said, a note of awe in her voice. “It’s July fourth.”

 

“What?” Lance poked his head up from his station. “Nuh-uh, lemme see.”

 

Pidge pulled up her screen and made it larger for the crowd growing around her seat. “Here, see? I linked up the castle to Earth time from the Garrison to help me learn Altean time better. It says so right here, it’s the Fourth of July.”

 

“No way, that’s so cool!” Hunk said excitedly. “We’ve gotta get some hot dogs. And burgers; we’ve got to have some burgers. I like mine over medium, what about you guys?”

 

“What’s so special about this day?” Allura asked. “Is it important?”

 

“For America, it is,” Shiro said, standing back up straight from leaning over Pidge’s station. “In other countries it’s just another day, but for the United States it’s their independance day.”

 

“Our independance day,” Keith butted in. “You went to the Garrison just like the rest of us, it’s just as important.”

 

Shiro gave a noncommittal shrug, but the small smile on his lips told a different story. Allura was still puzzled and shared a queer eye with Coran. “I’m afraid to say I don’t entirely understand,” she confessed. “I know you’ve said that Earth was separated by different countries and continents but, how is it that you all know about this ‘July’ day if you’re all from separate places? Do you celebrate it differently?”

 

“We all celebrated at the Garrison since it’s in Arizona- which is a part of America- and all the canyons made it the perfect place to party.”  Lance was practically buzzing in his seat. “Believe me, we go big, princess! Baseball and fireworks and music and popsicles that turn your tongue blue and cute girls in sundresses and bikinis-” A blush suddenly burned furiously over Lance’s cheeks and his smile looked a little off-putting to the others. “Oh man, can we celebrate?”

 

“I’m afraid we don’t have any dresses made from the sun,” Coran said, playing with his mustache. “And I don’t believe we have anything that will turn your tongue blue unless you want to go out and find a Flying Succaby; though I doubt you will be walking away with your tongue after licking that beast- let alone your head.”

 

“Charming,” Pidge muttered. “It was a lot of fun, though. Even I poked my head out of my computer for a few minutes to go see everything. When it came to patriotism, the Garrison really went all out.”

 

Shiro frowned in thought, not really bothered but more concentrating. “Do they still have the ball game between the staff and the cadets?”

 

“Sure do!” Lance piped. “My team won last year. One of the best scores of the season, I might add.”

 

“It was the only score for the season,” Hunk snickered. “Shiro’s games beat yours by a landslide.”

 

“That’s because it’s Shiro!” Lance shouted, completely indignant. Shiro only shook his head, a slight smile to his lips.

 

“Those games were always the highlight of the afternoon, but when the sun went down, that was a whole other story.” Shiro crossed his arms as his smile spread. “I remember hiking up through the canyons with my team after a win and watching the fireworks from the cliffs. It was kind of a relief from training, you know?”

 

“All the more reason to party!” Lance jumped up and ran excitedly to the bow of the ship. “We’ve been kicking evil butt non-stop for way too long, we need a break. Fireworks, a ball game, good food and girls by the poolside is the way to go, my friends!”

 

“You’re not getting me in a dress,” Pidge grumbled. “And definitely not a bikini.”

 

“But you sure as heck are getting me to cook!” Hunk jumped up to head to the kitchen, just as excited as his friend. “Lemme see what we got- I bet I can even make some ice cream. Where’s Kaltenecker?”

 

“Yeah! That’s what I’m talking about! Who else?” Lance looked expectantly to the rest of his crew. “C’mon, you know you wanna.”

 

“How are we going to celebrate if we don’t even have any fireworks?” Keith asked. “We don’t have enough people for a real team, the only food we have isn’t anything close to burgers and dogs, the pool we have is stuck on the ceiling where we can’t get to, and the only girls we have are Allura and Pidge who have no interest in you whatsoever.” Keith smirked at the indignant squawk Lance let out at that before continuing on. “I don’t really see the point of this.”

 

“The POINT is to have some FUN.” Lance dragged his hands down his face in agony, completely done with Keith’s lack of enthusiasm. “All that other stuff can be made with a little creativity like- we don’t really have to play a full game, we can just find a field and hit a ball with some sticks. Hunk’s got his super-kitchen-ju-ju powers to get us some grub, and as far as fireworks go, I’m sure Pidge can whip something up for us, can’t you, Pidge?”

 

She hummed in thought, calculating in her head. “It’s just controlled explosions, it shouldn’t be too hard.”

 

Allura smiled to Coran who smiled back and shrugged agreement. They were both intrigued by the Earthlings’ excitement. “I must admit, I am curious to see this.” 

 

Lance beamed. “Four down, two to go.” 

 

He held his fingers up to Shiro with a wide, expectant grin. They stared each other down, but the sparkle in Lance’s eye was contagious, and Shiro caved with a sigh. “This does sound fun, actually.”

 

Lance threw his hands up in the air. “Majority vote wins! Suck it, Keith!”

 

“Hey!”

 

\---

 

The rest of the afternoon, the team worked separately on their own projects. Pidge had Coran help her with the fireworks, Hunk scoured the kitchen for a proper meal, and Shiro searched with Allura for a nearby planet to play on- all the while trying to explain baseball to her. Meanwhile, Lance was busy being overlord of the entire day and taking great joy in ordering everyone around. Everyone except for Keith.

 

“Nope, you didn’t want to be a part of this so you don’t get to play.” Lance’s smirk was downright evil, and the fact that it grew from Keith’s irritation did nothing to kill it.

 

“I never said I didn’t want to,” Keith griped. “I said I didn’t see the point. Since everyone’s on board with this, I don’t see why not. Now are you going to give me a job or what?”

 

The smirk turned sinister. “You really want a job?” Lance asked. Keith scowled, but grumbled his assent all the same. “Really, really?”

 

“Lance.”

 

“How really?”

 

“LANCE.”

 

“How am I supposed to know how dedicated you are if you don’t tell me?” Lance’s grin spread across his face in a terribly crude manner, just begging to push some buttons. “I can’t give you a job just to have you flake out last minute.”

 

Keith gripped his hands by his side, trying desperately not to blow up. “I won’t flake out last minute.”

 

“Promise?” Lance could almost see Keith’s heartbeat pulsing from his neck. It was truly a sight to see.

 

“Promise,” Keith growled.

 

“Good,” Lance grinned. “Then go clean the pool.”

 

Keith was seething, and his hand twitched to his bayard as Lance turned to walk away. ‘We need him alive. We need him alive.’ He repeated this to himself over and over, but then Lance had to go and open his mouth.

 

“Chop, chop, pool-boy!”

 

It wouldn’t be THAT difficult to find a new blue paladin, would it? Lance turned his smug grin back around to watch Keith struggle with himself and was all-too pleased when Keith took stiff steps towards the pool. Lance snickered to himself at Keith’s misfortune and made his way towards the kitchen.

 

Hunk was in the zone. If anyone was more comfortable in the kitchen, they couldn’t be found. Forget the whole ‘earth’ thing Hunk had with his lion: this was his true element. He didn’t seem to notice the door opening and closing as Lance entered, but kept on at it with his work. Lance watched as Hunk dedicated his fingers to mushing meat into a bowl with spices, humming happily to himself as he worked.

 

“That for the burgers?” Lance asked.

 

“Yep,” Hunk grinned, finally noticing his friend. “A bit of ground palmagoren fillet is just what this baby asked for.”

 

“Sweet,” Lance grinned. “Any luck on the hot dogs?”

 

Hunk’s chipper attitude seemed to dull a bit. “Nah, couldn’t get it to mold right. We’re just going to have to stick with burgers tonight.”

 

“Eh, close enough.” Lance sauntered over to the fridge to pull out a juice pouch and sipped on it lazily, still watching Hunk. “Tonight’s going to be great.”

 

“I bet. I don’t think Shiro’s had anything like this in a while.” Hunk wiped his hands clean before heading to the sink. “I think it’d be good for us to get a little bit of normal again, especially for him.”

 

Lance scoffed. “And Keith didn’t want to do it, what a party-pooper.”

 

“I don’t think he’s actually ever done it, to be honest.” Hunk dried off his hands to start with a new bowl. “This might be new territory for him, and you know how much he hates not knowing something. Being unprepared for him is like- me not having a puke bag during training. Or Pidge not having her computers, or you not having your sleeping mask.”

 

“Okay, first of all, leave Madam Masquerade out of this,” Lance grumbled. “And second, what are you talking about? Keith is getting prepared for this, I sent him over to the pool.”

 

“I mean he probably felt uncomfortable before, not that he can’t get ready for it now.” Hunk turned to pull something from the oven, not minding the daggers Lance was staring at him with. “He got kicked out the spring semester of his freshman year, didn’t he? That means he’s probably never really done the whole Fourth of July thing with the Garrison. Don’t you think?”

 

Lance blinked. Once. Twice. Then he groaned and stood away from the counter he was leaning on to head out the door. “Stupid conscience.”

 

He grumbled the entire way to the pool, only stopping once he caught sight of Keith’s back swooping a pool net high above his head. Keith wasn’t really aware of Lance coming in, but when another net plopped into the water beside his, he took notice with a quick turn of his head.

 

“What are you doing?” Keith hissed.

 

“Helping.” Lance snapped right back at him without even looking. Keith didn’t like it.

 

“Why? Afraid I’ll mess it up?” He frowned harder when Lance didn’t answer. “What’s your deal?”

 

“Just shut up and clean the pool,” Lance said. “Be grateful to be in my presence, I could be helping Allura make her swimsuit.”

 

“You’re disgusting,” Keith said simply, almost bored. “And I didn’t ask for you to be here, I can handle this on my own.”

 

“I know that!”

 

“Then why are you here?” Keith watched as Lance scowled to his net, standing on his toes to reach for the water high above him. He wasn’t saying anything. “Well?”

 

“I want it to be perfect,” Lance finally muttered. “This is the first time we’re celebrating together as a team, don’t you want it to go right?”

 

Keith eyed Lance. His lips were pursed, a sure tell of Lance lying but at the same time, he sounded sincere. He wanted this to go well, but not for the reason he gave. It irritated Keith not to know the whole truth but Lance seemed to want silence while they worked and that, in itself was a rarity, so Keith decided not to push it. Instead, he threw his net back into the water and worked alongside Lance in blissful silence. That is, until the ship shuddered.

 

\---

 

“That is one giant worm.”

 

The team watched in horror as a giant space worm fired powerful laser beams from it’s mouth at a frozen ice planet. Yes, you read that right.

 

“The people of this planet look to be made of cultivated ice follicles,” Allura said, preparing the castle for battle. “Somehow they’ve been animated to life, but if that beam gets too close, they’ll all melt and die.”

 

“So we’re saving ice people?” Hunk asked.

 

“Almost, but not quite,” Coran answered. “It looks like slush.”

 

“So we’re saving snow people.” Lance said. “Snow cones. No- snowmen!”

 

“Nice, I like it,” Hunk grinned. His chuckle was cut short once the weblum fired at the planet again, causing panic on the ground below. “Oh, no.”

 

“I thought these things only went after dead planets?” Pidge said, flying around to the flank.

 

“Something’s up with this one,” Keith said. “It might be agitated by something. Whatever it is, we need to stop it before those people down there are done for.”

 

“Stay away from it’s face!” Hunk shouted. If anything, that was the one thing he held onto during his last tango with one of these beasts. “And the laser- no touchy the deadly laser beam of doom.”

 

“We kind of got that, Hunk!” Lance shouted back, and he swooped down alongside the beast to blast his own ice beam at him. A thick line of ice trailed down the side when suddenly, another death beam came straight at the Blue Lion, almost hitting it. “Woah! Side beams! Side beams!”

 

“That can’t be right!” Coran called through the speaker. “The only defense weblums have is with the poisonous streams from it’s face- this isn’t possible.”

 

“Well, it’s possible,” Shiro called. “Believe it.” 

 

“I don’t think so,” Pidge butt in. “Something’s different- we all know it, we just have to find what.”

 

“Uh, guys?” Lance looked closer at the thing currently trying to kill him. “Is this thing supposed to have bolts?”

 

The entire team looked to the creature in tandem, only to find that it was, in fact, made of metal. Hunk was the first to say it. “We’re fighting a giant, robot worm-monster shooting poisonous death beams at living snowmen.”

 

“... You can’t pay people to write this shit.”

 

“PIDGE. LANGUAGE.”

 

“Aw, c’mon, Shiro, I earned that one!”

 

“It’s coming around,” Keith interrupted. “Princess- on your left!”

 

The castle moved through space just out of reach from the beam being spit out from the team’s foe, jostling the ship harshly to the side from the brunt of the beam against the particle barrier before Allura steadied it again. “Good call, Keith, the particle barrier wouldn’t have survived that head on.”

 

“There’s not much it can,” Pidge muttered.

 

“Guys, focus,” Shiro ordered, firing his own lasers. “It looks like we’re dealing with another robeast so we need to get this thing taken care of fast. Any ideas?”

 

“Voltron, obviously,” Keith said, dodging away from another, smaller beam being shot at him. “But we’ll need a minute to get it together and I don’t think Wormy over there is going to wait around for us.”

 

“We need a distraction.” Lance flew in as close as he dared to fire more ice at the robot’s back before flying off to safety. “Preferably something big.”

 

Pidge groaned in annoyance. “Coran, get the fireworks.”

 

“What? No!” 

 

Pidge was already getting ready. “Lance, it’s just what we need to give us a few minutes, now sit back and watch the show.”

 

“I can’t enjoy the show if I’M TRANSFORMING A GIANT ROBOT.”

 

“Heads up!” Coran barely gave them a second’s warning before the fireworks he and Pidge had conjured up exploded in the monster’s face, the result being more blast and destruction than color and beauty. Coran tsked at Pidge.  “What is it with you and explosions?”

 

It ended up being enough. The worm was distracted, Voltron was formed and soon enough, their sword slid right down the middle of the robotic beast. The people of the frozen lands below rejoiced at their saviors and watched with the team as their enemy exploded before them.

 

“Well, so much for celebrating,” Shiro said. “Those people down there look like they may need help rebuilding.”

 

“There’s still the food, right?” Lance asked, but Hunk shook his head, unseen.

 

“Not after that last hit. Everything probably ended up on the floor.”

 

“Baseball is out too; not unless you can run in a parka,” Pidge added unhelpfully.

 

Lance slumped in his seat. Even the pool was a bust, having splashed out at least a third of the water from the attack. Everything was ruined, and he was not happy to admit it.

 

“The fireworks were pretty cool.”

 

Lance perked up at the sound of Keith’s voice, not really believing it.

 

“They’re still going off, actually.” Keith tried. “And the color from the blast is reflecting off the snow so… Does that count?”

 

“I’d say so,” Shiro said, the sound of a smile in his voice.

 

True to Keith’s word, the color bombs Pidge had placed in her explosives were in fact appearing over the atmosphere above the snowy planet. The team sat in awe of it’s beauty, actually enjoying the sight. It was small; barely there at all, but  a voice could be heard humming quietly. After a few minutes of watching the reflective lights, they noticed the small voice to belong to Pidge.

 

“Oh beautiful, for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain.”

 

Hunk smiled brightly and continued on with her, singing just as softly. “For purple mountain majesty above the fruited plains.”

 

“America, America, God shed his grace on thee.” 

 

Lance sat up in his seat as well, his smile completely renewed over his face as he joined in as well, singing along quietly with his friends to the nation’s song, and smiling all the wider when Shiro, and then Keith joined in with them. For once, in a fairly long time, they could all enjoy a little piece of home together.

 

“And crown thy good with brotherhood, from sea to shining sea.”

 

The color started to fade as the blast ended, and finally, Allura spoke to her team. “I’m sorry today didn’t work out like you’d hoped. I would have loved to have celebrated with you all.”

 

“Me too,” Coran added.

 

“It’s alright,” Shiro said. “This is enough.”

 

And it was. Until Hunk opened his mouth.

 

“You realize we’re celebrating by exploding terrorists, right?”

 

“How can you get more American than that?”

 

“He has a point.”

  
“Guys, we were having a MOMENT.”

 

 

\---

**Author's Note:**

> So, they were playing the superbowl at work today and I overheard the song… I heard Pidge singing it for some reason and just couldn’t stop myself. PLUS, I love a good laugh. Hope you enjoyed it!


End file.
